1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to managing print jobs. More particularly, the present invention relates to scheduling print jobs in light of energy pricing and energy loads that take place during a period of time.
2. Description of the Related Art
Print job management does not typically take external factors or data into account when determining how or when the jobs submitted to a printer should actually be printed. This is especially true in terms of the amount of energy a printer consumes and when it consumes it. Printers are at times non-critical devices that draw a significant amount of energy from the power grid. Users often send jobs to the printer at any time of the day even though the printouts will not be needed at the time they are sent. In fact, sometimes users wait for extended periods before even picking up printouts that are waiting for them. This current unmanaged approach to printing, is not an efficient use of the energy resources consumed by the printer. The lack of energy knowledge at the print job manager is a challenge for energy companies, since they will incur unnecessary load at peak times, and is also a challenge for consumers, since they end up paying for higher peak energy for non-critical jobs. These challenges are exacerbated by the fact that millions of printers are used in office and home settings during standard work hours which is usually the time of greatest energy demands, especially in warmer climates where such homes and office environments are simultaneously using large amounts of energy to operate air conditioning equipment.